AN: I'm so sorry about the long wait. It was due to technical difficulties, so I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me. I am going to try to give you one more chapter today to make up for it. Not to mention, this chapter also includes some time spent between vengeful Severus Snape and cowering Nathaniel Morgan :)
Thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions about what to do with Nathaniel. There was one in particular which was very popular, and it is coming. ;)
Harry's heat ended a few days earlier than normal, which was a little concerning. He checked, and he wasn't pregnant again so that couldn't be the reason. Severus suggested it might be caused by what he had just gone through. Harry agreed readily enough. After getting washed and checking on what was left of Harry's injuries, Severus and Harry apparated to Sirius and Remus's house where they knew Ivy was, along with two very concerned parents.
As soon as they were inside, they heard Ivy call out, "Daddy! Papa! You're here!" before she ran to them. They both knelt down so they could each wrap an arm around her as she wrapped one arm around each of their necks. Sev realized then full-force just how much he had missed his little girl over the past several days. Once Harry had risen to his feet, still a little too tired to be kneeling comfortably for long, Severus stood as well but with his daughter in his arms, holding her as tightly as he could without harming her.
Meanwhile, Sirius and Remus had waited patiently for Harry to finish greeting his own pup before he turned to them. He quickly gave the two of them the same treatment Ivy had given him and Sev. He inhaled their scents, and they did likewise. "We were so worried about you," Remus murmured.
"I know," Harry said softly. "Sorry to worry you."
"Don't apologize for this, pup," Sirius said firmly.
"Yeah, Sev keeps telling me the same thing," Harry admitted.
"Well, you should listen. The man's not a complete idiot, after all," Sirius said with a smile in his voice.
"Not that we're complaining," Remus said as the five of them moved to get more comfortable in the sitting room, "but aren't you back a bit early?"
"Yeah, we are," Harry said. "It ended early for some reason. We haven't figured out for sure why yet. I'm not pregnant again. Sev says it may have something to do with what's happened. That's sort of what we're going to assume for now."
"So, what are you going to do now?" Remus asked them, knowing there were some adjustments to be made.
"We haven't really discussed it, yet," Harry said hesitantly.
"I know one thing we are certainly going to do as soon as we can," Severus said. "We're going to re-form our bond." Harry knew it was going to happen, but somehow hearing Sev say it out loud made him feel a little more secure. He'd had a small, niggling doubt in the back of his mind telling him that Severus might be alright without having a bond. It seemed as though, with Nathaniel, all of Harry's past insecurities were coming back to him. Hopefully he would be able to move on without causing damage to either his relationship with Severus or his pup. He would talk to Severus about starting to see Ethan again once they were alone.
Unaware of Harry's thoughts, Severus continued. "I would also very much like to have a… conversation with Nathaniel."
"That can be arranged," Sirius said, nearly growling. "I had Draco take me to where he saw Harry, and we found the house, with Nathaniel in it. We left him tied down and with a certain spell on him."
"What spell would that be?" Severus asked in a tone that hinted at basic curiosity, though he was burning with a desire to know any pain Nathaniel might be experiencing.
"Oh, nothing much. It just makes him feel every bit of pain he's caused anyone in the last week. I've always found it quite useful," Sirius said with an air of nonchalance.
"Very nice," Severus agreed. He would be going there as soon as he knew his family were alright.
"If I may offer a suggestion for your next course of action?" Remus asked.
"Of course," Harry said.
"Ron and Hermione were quite worried about all of you. If you can find an opportunity, it would be a good idea to pay them a visit."
"Indeed," Severus said. "Would you like to go ahead and do that now, Harry?" he asked.
"Sure," Harry agreed before giving both Sirius and Remus very tight hugs, taking Ivy's hand, and apparating with Severus to Ron and Hermione's front porch.
Once Severus had spent some time conversing with Ron and Hermione, he pulled Harry aside in the hallway. "I need you to be perfectly honest with me, Harry. Will you be okay if I go take care of Nathaniel? If it's too soon, and you won't want me to leave, then I'll understand. I don't much fancy leaving you, but the alpha in me is chomping at the bit to do something to that man."
"I understand, Severus," Harry said, using the man's full name to let him know he meant it. "I'm not ready to be on my own, but I can handle a little separation from you, as long as you're back within an hour. Since you don't know where it is, you'll have to find out from Sirius, so why don't you take me with you when you go back over there and I can stay there with Ivy while I wait for you. Nothing against Ron and Hermione, but they're just my friends and I think I'd feel safer at my parents' house."
"Of course. Are you ready to go now?"
"Yes, but first I need you to promise me something?"
"Yes?"
"We'll have some time to ourselves later today. There are definitely things that need to be discussed, and the sooner, the better."
"I promise," Severus said sincerely. They bid their good-byes to that branch of the Weasley clan before going back to Harry's teen-hood home. "Take me to him," Severus told Sirius once they had arrived.
"Now?" Sirius asked with a glance at Harry.
"Yes. We've discussed this, and agreed on it, so now."
"I'll stay here with Harry and Ivy," Remus said. The two alphas nodded before Sirius apparated them to the front door of the cabin Harry had been held prisoner in.
Severus could already smell traces of his mate in the house as soon as they crossed the threshold. He braced himself, knowing that this was going to be difficult. He had decided not to kill Nathaniel. That would not undo what had been done to his mate. He would make him suffer, make him fear for his life, and then turn him over to the authorities. The punishment for Nathaniel's crimes would be very heavy, and that knowledge would likely be the only thing that would keep Severus from killing the man and ending his miserable existence.
"Hello, Nathaniel," he said coldly when he entered the room Nathaniel was tied down in. "How are you feeling at the moment?"
"Horrible, no thanks to you. Now let me up. I've had quite enough of this."
"No, I don't think I will let you up just yet," Severus said. "You hurt my mate, and I don't appreciate that in the least. I'm going to make sure you never do so again." Apparently the spell Sirius had put on Nathaniel wasn't quite enough, because Nathaniel was still much too brazen for Severus's liking. "You know, there is a very fortunate law in place that makes allowances for circumstances in which one's mate has been hurt by another. It makes it permissible for me to use unforgivable curses on you. Isn't that interesting?" Without another thought, Severus cast the Cruciatus on the man lying before him, though only briefly. He had plans that required Nathaniel be conscious and aware of his body's pain.
Sirius watched on silently. He had no idea how far Severus was planning to go, exactly, but he wasn't going to step in no matter what happened. He was sure Severus could handle the situation. Even if he didn't have that conviction, he knew to stay out of the way. It was a very foolish man who got in the way of an alpha getting retribution for a hurt omega.
As Sirius watched, Severus tore off a piece of Nathaniel's shirt and transfigured it into a pair of rusty, blunt-looking pliers. The look of fear that filled Nathaniel's eyes was satisfying, even though Sirius wasn't quite sure what Severus had planned yet.
Severus chuckled as Nathaniel shook with terror. "You know what I have planned, don't you?" he asked coolly. "And you know I will make it hurt as much as I possibly can. I had thought about doing this with a hex, but that wouldn't have caused near as much pain as this will."
"You'll regret this, Snape," Nathaniel spat at him, as if he hadn't been shaking moments ago. It was slightly irksome the way Nathaniel would be fearful, then revert back to shouting insults and making demands and threats.
"A likely story, considering I have the law on my side. No, this is going to cause regret for you. Do you know why I am doing this? Do you truly know? I have a feeling you're too thick to understand, so I will take the liberty of spelling it out for you. You hurt my mate because you could. You forced him to do horrible things against his will, and you made him feel miserable. You were a selfish bastard – still are, I'm sure – and you never cared about him. All you ever wanted from Harry was children, and when he wasn't providing them, you made his life a living hell until you finally kicked him out at the risk of driving him to insanity.
"I care very deeply about my family, and you have hurt them. I will not let that go unpunished. Because of all the trouble you have caused, because of your arrogance, because of your insistence that it was Harry's fault you weren't a father, I am going to rob you of the ability to ever have children of your own whom you would likely hurt just as you hurt my pup and my mate."
Sirius couldn't find it within himself to feel sorry for what was happening to the man laid out before them. He more than deserved what was coming to him. Sirius normally wouldn't have condoned such… barbaric torture on another person, but when an alpha's family is involved, especially if the portion of that family happens to involve an omega, a protective instinct is evoked in an alpha that makes them want to maim beyond what they might normally find acceptable. You never hurt an omega that an alpha cares about.
Severus ignored the screams of the man on the bed as he crudely castrated him with a rusty pair of pliers. That. . . monster would never mess with Harry again, that was a certainty. By the time he had finished, Nathaniel had lost all sense of dignity and was pleading for relief, for Severus to stop, for anything. His cries fell on ears made deaf by righteous anger.
The scene playing out in front of Sirius reminded him just how dark and cruel Severus had the capacity to be after his days as a Death Eater. He was further reminded by what Severus did next. He began to speak coldly and evenly to Nathaniel. "I thought long and hard about killing you," he told him. "I have decided against it, though. I want you to have plenty of time to regret what you have done to my family. I am still going to ensure that you are never able to hurt my family again, though. In order to do that, I am going to turn you over to the Ministry of Magic for the crimes you have committed. Before doing so, however, I am going to use a spell on you. I developed it myself. I have yet to use it on someone – I was saving it, and this seems the perfect time to see how well the spell works. Shall we try it?" Severus then pointed his wand at Nathaniel and muttered a long incantation Sirius couldn't quite catch.
Sirius was surprised when, instead of seeing a light leave Severus's wand in a stream of color, a strange, sickly yellow began to exude from Nathaniel's body, giving the air around his body an eerie glow before it dissipated completely. Sirius couldn't figure out what had been done, but he took note of the satisfied look on Severus's face and the look of horror on Nathaniel's. "What have you done?!" Nathaniel demanded.
Severus's face changed from containing a look satisfaction to a sneer of disgust. "I've robbed you of your magic. It's only fair, don't you think, after all the times you forcibly stole it from Harry? You deserve as much. Besides, how am I to be certain you will leave my family alone if there is any possibility you can hurt them? I eliminate that chance by taking your very magic from your body." After his explanation, Severus took the opportunity to put Nathaniel under the Cruciatus for a full minute, before relenting for a minute, and putting him back under it again for 10 minutes.
By the time he was done, Nathaniel looked thoroughly haggard, worn, and terrified, and for once that look didn't go away. "What are you going to do to me now?" he asked shakily.
"Now? Now I am going to release you. . ." Severus paused and waited as he saw Nathaniel sag to the bed in relief. he smiled wickedly before he continued, ripping apart the small vestiges of Nathaniel's hope. ". . .at the Ministry of Magic. I will inform them of what you did, and my resulting actions, and then I will smile as they sentence you, without any unnecessary processing, to a life spent in Azkaban, where you will slowly deteriorate under the influence of the Dementors, losing all happiness, all hope, all sanity, and then your life. I do hope you live a very long time so that you can contemplate the harsh punishment you are receiving and wallow in misery for an exponentially longer time than you ever put anyone else in misery."
AN: Next chapter should be up within 2 hours unless something goes wrong. Thanks for sticking around!